Foxy Digitalis
Inside the fragile walls of “Vågnende Jeg Ser De Døde,” midnight is a distant beacon stuck in a world of haze. øjeRum spins a calm facade across the decaying spaces beneath wistful piano arrangements and sonic interference. Strings dance behind glass at the periphery, leaving us wondering if our minds have gone or if these […]
Gene Tripp gives voice to the void. Crushing distortion hollows out the bedrock holding up our forward progress, collapsing any notion of pretense in a squall of thick basslines and straightforward vocal melodies. As the alter ego of artist and composer Jay Hufman, Gene Tripp is a laser-focused melancholy filtered through a meat grinder. As […]
The night is young, prehistoric perhaps, on Adrian Knight’s latest, “Carousel of Time.” Inside the warm atavistic glow of late-night TV noise and faded neon, silhouetted arrangements take shape and hone our focus. Sunkissed guitar melodies bounce off synth beds flowing in arctic circles, all of which is a blanket wrapped around Knight’s infectious vocal […]
For those who have missed it, Biliana Voutchkova’s series of duo releases on Relative Pitch this year have all been eye-opening and worth investigating. The latest, with Tomeka Reid, though, ups the ante. Voutchkova’s approach to the violin is equal parts ecstatic and visceral. On Bricolage III, moments of surprising, elastic beauty intersect with inquisitive sonic […]
When we last left the enigmatic Builenradar, the damaged post-apocalyptic bikerfolk cataclysms were just waking up from a slumber. His new album, There Is No Hunger In Your Shame, is a quiet, fractured force of engaging sonic decay. With these two live videos from Morphine Raum in Berlin (and recorded by Morphine Records’ Rabih Beaini (sound) […]
Mark Kimbrell and Patrick Shiroishi are the dream team I didn’t realize I needed, but now that Oort Smog is in my life, I am overwhelmed. The duo runs the table on “Every Motherfucker Is Your Brother,” never setting out to do it all but somehow managing to anyway. Pensive, reflective opening moments gather our […]
Gossamer threads dangle from somewhere unseen, dancing on glimmering piano arrangements and gentle acoustic guitar progressions. Within each aural phrase is a fractured image of a memory. Moskitoo’s voice is like this crystalline reflection, focusing the energy from each disparate note into a glowing beacon. Each word balances with delicate grace on the flowing sonic […]
No matter where our attention is turned, as soon as Jerusalem In My Heart’s Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s buzuq rings out in the opening moments of “To Feed The Gentry,” our focus is caught. Moumneh joins the trio of Stef Heeren, Kwinten Mordijc, and Saif Al-Qaissy for this sonic exorcism. The embers of the buzuq improvisations […]
Cryptic undercurrents and effervescent psychedelia collide on the ritualistic rhythms of Rainbow Island’s hypnotic “Hidden Birubu.” Atmospheres painted with neon swirls cloud every inch of the horizon. Woodwinds are processed to infinity, blown out into sonic sun flare leads, purring the harshest, most enticing melodies. Voices bury themselves in the simmering ether, words piercing the […]